Embrace me with your warmth
by Empty Stairs
Summary: "It's him. Finally. After dreaming about this moment over and over again since learning Mika is alive, he is standing only a few feet away from him. It's Mika. But it can't be him, because black wings are starting to sprout from his back, and he is screaming..." Manga spoilers, rated T to be sure. I do not own Owari no Seraph/Seraph of the End.


It has been a while since it was this cold; the clouds don't seem to be able to decide whether they want to cry rainy tears or icy flakes of snow, which results in an ice cold rain falling down, which will freeze you immediately. Even so, the silhouettes continue their dancing battle under the in darkness wrapped sky. It is a depressing sight indeed, but this world is a saddening ugly one after all, so one could say it only fits the scene even more.

Hyakuya Yuuichirou has become so cold he doesn't even feel it anymore, both in a literal and symbolic way of speaking. As if automatically he moves, joining the battle dance even though it almost feels like the one holding his sword isn't him anymore. He is fighting one of the four vampires that have kept a group of human hostages captive (to keep them as livestock, obviously), whom they were ordered to rescue. The freeing of the hostages had succeeded, but they had been slowed down by the cold, and suddenly the vampires had attacked, and in what seems like hours and hours, but in reality can have only been a few minutes, he and his friends are finding themselves fighting a never ending battle. Some other squads have joined in to help them, but the vampires of course also got some help. /span/p

Yuuichirou is dying to know if Mika is with them, since it is a pretty big group and after seeing his assumed dead, most important family member alive, naturally, the only thing he wants is to see him again. But searching for him right now would be suicide. So instead, he grits his teeth and focuses on the enemy in front of him, who is grinning like an idiot, as if he is having fun in this awful situation. This only makes him more determined to beat the shit out of him, though. Yuuichirou charges, ignoring the fact that he actually wants to cry and rub his limbs until he can feel them existing again, fighting not only the bloodsucking monster in front of him, but also the cold that still wraps around him like a blanket. He is screaming while running, screaming the cold and the hate and the world away, but suddenly, everything comes to an halt. The ground seems to quiver and somehow Yuuichirou finds himself freezing in his steps, staring at the most terrifying thing he has seen since watching his family getting slaughtered by vampires. He doesn't realize his hands are trembling until his sword slips out of them and loudly kisses the ground.

It's him. Finally. After dreaming about this moment over and over again since learning Mika is alive, he is standing only a few feet away from him. It's Mika. But it can't be him, because black wings are starting to sprout from his back, and he is screaming, his kind-hearted friend who is always smiling for his family, he is in pain, hugging himself and crying tears of darkness. It hurts. Oh freaking damnit, it hurts all the way to his heart. _What did they do. What the fuck did they do? These freaking bloodsucking monsters._ What did they do to Mika, the only one whom his heart has been to reaching out for all these years?

Somehow people are shouting, moving around restlessly, but Yuuichirou can only stare at the person who means the world to him getting consumed by darkness. Mika, who always makes him think of warmth and light, imagining the sunlight catching his hair and painting it gold. Mika, whose smile can light up his whole body, even though he will probably never ever admit it in his whole life. Mika, the first person to call him family in this ugly broken world.

And then he is running, screaming his name, not even hearing the loud voice of his commander ordering them to retreat immediately, or the terrified shouts of his squad members calling after him. He has to reach Mika, right now. He has to chase away the shadows that will take him away forever. He can't lose him, not again, not him, _oh god please not him_.

He can see his friend randomly attacking every single person he comes across – both human and vampire, while hissing words he can't and doesn't want to hear, because they are said by demons stealing his voice and entire being. This is not Mika. This is not him. He could never do something terrible like this. This is not Mika. He has to bring him back. Back. Back. Back. Back from the endless night.

There are arms around him, pulling him back, again and again, even though he struggles and struggles and screams, never removing his eyes from Mika. One, two, three, four he has already cut down. Two vampires, two humans, soldiers whose faces but not names Yuuichirou knows and stop _oh please please please let it stop_. Something (no, someone) hits him in the face and he can hear again.

'Snap out of it, Hyakuya!' she screames. 'Retreat, right now! Don't fucking ignore orders! We're going back immediately!' Mitsuba is crying, actually, but he has no time to care, not now, not when Mika is –

'No,' is the only thing he manages to say before forcing himself out of her grip and moving forward, forward, towards, towards, towards…

Something (no, someone) hits him again and he is falling, crashing into the ground and his cheek is burning, crying blood. He opens his eyes, only to find the ones he has been dreaming of for four years. But everything is wrong. There is no light within them, no sparkle of hope or warmth or love, and therefore they aren't Mika's, they can never be Mika's. But it is still Mika looking down on him, raising his sword slowly, oh so slowly, and Yuuichirou wonders absently if this is the way he is meant to die all along, killed by the one he abandoned and left to die on that awful day when they were both twelve years old and even more naïve than right now.

He faintly hears an annoyingly familiar male voice calling out to his squad leader and he finds himself wondering what she did this time to piss Guren Ichinose off, just before being pushed forward violently, almost crashing into Mika.

'Embrace him,' Shinoa hisses out of breath. She looks terrible, her hair a mess and cuts and blood are all over her face. 'Hurry up!'

'What?' he forces himself to say, his throat and everything, his life, his heart, hurting. The thing imitating Mika – it is not Mika, not Mika, of course not, it cannot be Mika – is grabbing his sword again, walking towards them, slowly, slowly, looking at Yuuichirou but not looking at him at all, and it hurts because the only thing he wants is for him to _see_ him, with those eyes full of life, and the smile that always lights them up. So Yuuichirou pushes himself to his feet, brushes the tears away he doesn't even remember crying and catches him in his arms, screaming his name, just before Mika can stab either him or Shinoa. For a few seconds, he struggles violently, hissing, screaming things that don't make any sense, and then his body goes completely limp, Yuuichirou carefully keeping him from crashing into the ground. Relief washes over him, a wave of sudden realization leaving him a shaking mess, clinging to the unconscious body in his arms, Mika, his Mika, they tried to take him away from him, again, again, again. But he won't let that happen. Not ever again.


End file.
